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Dennis would like you to know that he's looking for participants to join the parade/procession through Chelsea with a 24 foot viking ship. Contact him through his website if you wanna join the fun.
Dennis McNett
Reaping Waves, Vital Vessels, and the Passing of the Wolfbats
December 16, 2010–January 22, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, December 16, 6–9 PM
Viking Ship and Wolfbats "Invade" West Chelsea!
Street Celebration Kicks Off Dennis McNett Show at Joshua Liner Gallery
Joshua Liner Gallery, in collaboration with gallery artist Dennis McNett, is
thrilled to present a first-ever, spectacular event in the streets of West Chelsea: The Passing of the Wolfbats.
Part art parade, part shaman uprising, the "Passing of the Wolfbats" will gather art enthusiasts and neighborhood
residents for a celebratory procession through the heart of the New York art world. The purpose? To
wake up the city's sleeping spirits of creativity, expression, and personal soulfulness.
Led by a Viking ship, drummers, marchers with banners and battleaxes, and a flock of Wolfbats—McNett's
signature symbol of transformation—the procession will feature many elements from the artist's work, including
mythological figures and folklore, animal and skeleton forms, and masks and costumes, all emblazoned
with McNett's distinctive linocut imagery. McNett has evolved these characters into a personal mythology that
he deploys in woodcut prints on paper applied to wall installations, sculptures, papier mâché masks, costumes,
ships, and more.
The community is enthusiastically invited to participate in the procession in whatever form it chooses, from
wheatpasting prints to the hull of the ship, to creating and wearing costumes, to offering expressions in song
and dance during the procession. All participants are welcomed to join the celebration of community energy
and collective spirit outside the Joshua Liner Gallery on 28th Street, where a second ship (with band aboard)
will be moored. The ships themselves are roughly twenty-six feet in length, constructed of wood entirely by
hand, and feature ten-foot sails of printed muslin and a hull papered in prints by McNett and myriad other
"The size of the ship is important," says McNett. "It represents an invasion into whatever space it inhabits and is
large enough to be collaborative. It's an armature for communal ritual, big enough to facilitate everyone's
work." It is McNett's intention to celebrate collectivity and collaboration in the construction of the ships, the
tradition of storytelling, the energy of the procession, and the egalitarian medium of printmaking itself.
Wolfbats and Other Misfits
McNett's Wolfbats—flying creatures with a wolf head and bat wings—are inspired by the Norse resurrection
myth of Fenris, and first appeared in public at the 2007 Deitch Projects Art Parade. The artist staged his first
"Viking invasion," with Wolfbats and near life-size Viking ship, at the Southern Graphics Council Conference
("Mark Remarque") in Philladelphia in March 2010. Dubbed "The Big Takeover," the parade incorporated work
from countless number of printmakers who joined McNett in adorning the Viking ship with their work. In
In December, SCOPE Miami will showcase Santa Muerte in a special project installation by McNett at its
annual art fair.
Identifying overarching themes in his work, McNett views his mythical characters as "beautiful misfits shunned
and punished for being different, alive, strong. They are a reminder of our short time on earth. I envision all of
these things as vital spirits that wake the sleeping spirit in others, and do battle against apathy, loss of
community/tribe, the sleeping and tuned-out, fictional news media, corporate ownership, and money-beforespirit
The Exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery
Dennis McNett's Viking ship procession kicks off an exhibition of new works by the artist at Joshua Liner
Gallery. The show will include wood- and linocut works on paper and muslin, as well as large carved-wood
panels that are hand-colored in acrylic, inked, and finished. Also included will be freestanding sculptures
papered in McNett's prints, such as Santa Muerte, more hanging wolfbats, and animals that carry personal and
mythological significance for the artist.
Throughout, McNett focuses on storytelling in images expressed by the bold, saturated line unique to relief
printmaking. The artist's vocabulary of images borrows freely from Greek and Norse myths, Mexican muertos,
and the animal kingdom, all synthesized into an idiosyncratic style that is deeply heartfelt. Other characters
and creatures include eagles, wolves, owls, and skeletons, some of which have been developed into live,
impromptu performances in the public sphere.
Vital Vessels
McNett will also unveil a series of Viking ship sculptures emblazoned with patterns and images from a variety
of printing processes. These are memorial sculptures recognizing deceased friends and heroes from the artist's
past. Among the remembered are the late Andy Kessler, New York City skateboard pioneer; Richard Mock, the
celebrated painter and linocut printmaker regularly featured by the New York Times; and the master printmaker
and Kent State instructor, Tom Little. The ships represent each person with specific patterns, symbols,
and imagery either carved into or printed onto the wood surface and sails.
As McNett states, "The body is like a vessel, navigating water and waves. Ships have character: some know how
to navigate the seas better than others. Some ships are driven by skilled and experienced captains. Some ships
are beaten and weathered. Some have carried many passengers. Some show the way. Some vessels work
together for a common goal or to form a stronger force." The emotional tumult around these themes is faithfully
evoked by the memorial ship sculptures and a crashing wave installation in the gallery.
About the Artist
Born in 1972 in Virginia Beach, VA, Dennis McNett received a BFA from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA,
and an MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Solo exhibitions of his
work include: Year of the Wolfbat, Fecal Face Dot Gallery, San Francisco (2009); and Driving Through, The Life Art
Gallery, Portland, OR (2008). His work has been featured in the following selected group exhibitions:
Barnstormers, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York (2010); Outlaws and Wild Animals, Rebus Works, Raleigh, NC (2009);
From the Streets of Brooklyn, Thinkspace Gallery, Los Angeles (2009); Titanium Exposed, Fecal Face Gallery, San
Francisco (2008); INprint, SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM (2008); and Inky and Stinky, Lombardi
Gallery, Austin, TX (2008).
Joshua Liner Gallery, located in New York City's Chelsea arts district, presents an exciting roster of established
and emerging artists from North America, Asia, and Europe.
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Bridging the abyss
Deep in the Chilean Atacama Desert, far from sources of light pollution and other people-related disturbances, there is a tranquil sky like few others on Earth. This is the site for the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, a scientific machine at the cutting-edge of technology.
In this panoramic photograph, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — satellite galaxies of our own — glow brightly on the left, while the VLT's Unit Telescope 1 stands vigil on the right. Appearing to bridge the gap between them is the Milky Way, the plane of our own galaxy. The seemingly countless stars give a sense of the true scale of the cosmos. Every night ESO astronomers rise to the challenge of studying this vista to make sense of the Universe.
This awe-inspiring image was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky. Born in Belarus, Yuri now lives in Chile where he works as an astronomer. The dark skies above the Atacama Desert provide him with splendid opportunities to reveal the majesty of our cosmos, which he is keen to share.
Credit:ESO/Y. Beletsky
About the Image
Id: | potw1114a |
Type: | Photographic |
Release date: | 4 April 2011, 10:00 |
Size: | 3097 x 1500 px |
About the Object
Name: | Milky Way, Panorama, Very Large Telescope |
Type: | Unspecified : Technology : Observatory Unspecified : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Milky Way |
Category: | Paranal |

subset: commoncrawl


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Yes all smoke detectors have batteries. Most smoke detectors have a standard 9 volt battery including detectors that are wired to power all the time. These wired detectors need a battery in case of a power outage. You should change the batteries every 6 months.
Show All Answers
We allow home owners to burn brush or yard waste in agricultural zones. If you are unsure with your zoning please contact the township.(616-457-2340) You must get a permit which is issued on a yearly basis. Permits are available at the township offices located at 1515 Baldwin and are free. You must call the Township offices the day you decided to burn. If the fire department is called due to excessive smoke or interference with neighbors you may be asked to put the fire out.
Eastern Ottawa county residents can contact Safe Kids Greater Grand Rapids 616-391-7233 - http://www.helendevoschildrens.org/injuryprevention
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South Holland and Allegan county residents can also contact Allegan County Sheriff's Dept 269-673-0500 ext 4437
We are always willing to look at qualified individuals that would like to join our team. Applications here.This will give you idea of what is required to become a firefighter. If you have further questions please contact the fire chief.
When should you use the toll free non-emergency number? 1-800-249-0911 The non-emergency number is to assist the public when the use of 9-1-1 is not an urgent request or life and property are not in danger. The non-emergency number is toll free, and answered twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Call 1-800-249-0911 when there is no immediate danger to life or property. (Non-Emergency). Examples: Animal Control calls (no threat to public safety) Miscellaneous Crimes or any type of incident that has occurred at an earlier time/date that needs a police investigation and/or a report. Miscellaneous calls for service where police or fire assistance would be helpful. Informational requests related to police or fire activity.
This problem is compounded in large condominium and apartment complexes. Arriving at a correct address, the engine company finds a huge residential facility with many buildings in the complex. Make sure large identification lettering or numbering is mounted on the side of the building. This is as important as the street address. It would be even better if someone could be standing near the street to direct the fire units to the appropriate apartment.
Call the Georgetown Township Fire Chief, at least three weeks in advance, at (616)457-2340 ext 247.
Burning yard waste such as leaves, grass and twigs is not permitted for many reasons, as the smoke poses a threat to human health in high density suburban neighborhoods. Persons burning yard waste will be asked to put the fire out and will be cited. We only allow burning in certain conditions, and zoned agricultural. Composting is a better option, as it returns helpful nutrients to the soil. If you don't know your zoning, contact the Township (616)457-2340.


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Key milestone towards the development of a new clinically useful antibiotic
Scientists have identified the genes necessary for making a highly potent and clinically unexploited antibiotic in the fight against multi-resistant pathogens.
"Lantibiotics are antibiotic molecules produced by soil bacteria, and we are studying probably the most potent one known, microbisporicin, which is active against many different pathogens," said Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre, co-author on the paper published in PNAS.
"Our study has allowed us to understand how the antibiotic is made by a bacterium that was first isolated from Indonesian soil. Now we can engineer the bacterium to make similar but better molecules, and lots of them."
"For example, we can take rational approaches to improve its pharmacological properties, such as its stability in the blood stream and how it distributes into tissues."
The producing bacterium, Microbispora corallina, is difficult to work with. It grows very slowly and no tools existed for its genetic manipulation. PhD student Lucy Foulston developed the tools herself. She then took advantage of new developments in genome sequencing to identify and then isolate the M. corallinagene cluster responsible for microbisporicin production.
This allowed her to analyse how the bacterium makes the molecule and the functions of the genes involved. Notably, she was able to identify the genes responsible for giving microbisporicin some of its unique features.
The antibiotic molecule binds to a well established target in the pathogenic bacteria it kills, and as yet there are no signs of resistance towards it.
Microbisporicin is very effective at killing disease-causing bacteria, including Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant pathogens.
"This molecule is already in late preclinical-phase trials and in animal models has shown to be more effective than the current drugs of last resort, linezolid and vancomycin," said Professor Bibb.
"We believe that this study will make a major contribution to the future clinical development of this exciting antibiotic, and the derivatives that can be made using the knowledge and technology that we have developed."


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Benjamin Banneker Biography
Benjamin Banneker
mathematician, astronomer, surveyorBorn: 11/9/1731
Birthplace: Ellicott's Mills, Md.
Benjamin Banneker has been called the first African American intellectual. Self-taught, after studying the inner workings of a friend's watch, he made one of wood that accurately kept time for more than 40 years. Banneker taught himself astronomy well enough to correctly predict a solar eclipse in 1789. From 1791 to 1802 he published the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris, which contained tide tables, future eclipses, and medicinal formulas. It is believed to be the first scientific book published by an African American. Also a surveyor and mathematician, Banneker was appointed by President George Washington to the District of Columbia Commission, which was responsible for the survey work that established the city's original boundaries. When the chairman of the committee, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, suddenly resigned and left, taking the plans with him, Banneker reproduced the plans from memory, saving valuable time. A staunch opponent of slavery, Banneker sent a copy of his first almanac to then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson to counter Jefferson's extremely misguided belief in the 'intellectual inferiority' of Black people.
See also Black Scientists.
Died: 10/9/1806


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From Mo-Ped performance tuning to handmade small-displacement motorcycles, Devin Biek and Richard Worsham are traveling a unique path. The small company they have formed, Janus Motorcycles, is located in Indiana and employs primarily local vendors and artisans. The owners found that Mo-Ped enthusiasts demonstrated an interest in the type of small displacement, simple motorcycle design they have developed. Their first model is the Halcyon 50, which employs a two-stroke engine and unique styling that draws inspiration from the past. Below are brief excerpts from the Janus Motorcycle website, followed by the Halcyon 50 specs. You can read an interesting interview with one of the Janus Motorcycles' founders here.
The goal of Janus Motorcycles has been to produce a line of simple, stylish, easy-to-ride and light-weight motorcycles that will appeal to a new generation of male and female riders.
Our bikes aren't replicas; we haven't designed them to exactly emulate a period from history. They are contemporary, practical machines that celebrate some of our favorite aspects of motorcycle design over the last century.
We are building motorcycles for all ages of men and women who may not see themselves as a "biker," or doing 150mph, but who love the freedom, joy, and mobility that a motorcycle allows, especially if they can work on it themselves. We hope that what we are trying to accomplish is a step toward building a younger, broader generation of American riders, and ideally, a new American motorcycle company producing bikes ranging from 125 to 250cc's.
Type: Water-cooled, case-inducted, 2-stroke single
Displacement: 49.9cc
Bore/Stroke: 39.86 X 40mm
Carburation: 17mm Dellorto carburetor
Lubrication: Mechanical oil pump
Starting System: Kick and electric
Exhaust: Tuned expansion chamber with stinger
Final Drive: Chain
Clutch Wet, multi-plate
Gearbox: 6-speed
Fuel Capacity: 3 gallons
Oil capacity: 1 quart
Frame: Tubular steel cradle
Wheels: Cast aluminum hubs with steel 36 spoke rims
Tires: Front 3.00X18, Back 3.50X18
Suspension: EBR hydraulic forks, hard-tail with sprung seat
Brakes: Front and rear drum
Instrumentation: Analog speedometer, turn indicator and neutral lights
Maximum Power: 9.8 hp
Maximum Speed: 55mph
Fuel Efficiency: Estimated 60+mpg


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The internet gives us instant access to things half a world away. And once again, the Vintage Fashion Guild has its finger on the pulse. Last night in Sydney, Australia, a wonderful collection of fashion, furniture and decorative arts from fashion designer Lisa Ho was offered at auction. Our VFG friend Nicole Jenkins of Circa Vintage in Melbourne alerted us at the VFG, and ended up making the trip and procuring a few choice pieces. Nicole says that dresses from the 20s & 30s are a rare offering in Australia, so the auction of this collection was an especially wonderful and drool worthy event.
Here are a few choice pieces from the catalogue.
French tulle embroidered evening dress
Floral velvet and metallic coat with fur collar
Peach velvet cape with applique and diamante detailing
Fully beaded dress with jagges hemline


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This item (P6848) is not currently available for purchase.
Make your holidays merry with this rosewood ball ornament. The bright red hue goes wonderfully with greens, golds, and silvers. Choose some ball ornaments in any of these colors to Christmas tree. Consider different finishes as well to add variety to your decorating scheme. Clear or multicolor light strings will make this rosy color pop. You can even use them for crafts. Turn these balls into elves and Santas. The options are endless with this brilliant hue.


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Last Friday, Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib, dubbed "a modern-day Gandhi" by the LA Times, was beaten by Israeli armed forces at a peaceful protest. A leader of popular resistance in the West Bank town of Bil'in, Khatib lives by the credo: "Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon."
That perhaps, along with global exposure of the documented human rights abuses and recognized violations of international law by the state of Israel and its collaborators.
In 2009, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine was founded to do exactly that. First in Barcelona, then London, Cape Town, and now coming to New York City in early October, the tribunal gathers legal experts, scholars, activists, and other people of note to help shed light on the reality of Israel's occupation of Palestine, and demands accountability from Israel's corporate and international enablers.
Coming to the doorstep of the United Nations in the financial capital of the United States is a bold move for the Russell Tribunal. Amidst the pre-election campaign buzz in which both major parties unequivocally support Israel's actions, these non-binding hearings will place UN and US policies vis-à-vis Israel on trial.
Among the renowned figures who will publicly offer and weigh testimony in New York City are Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Russell Means, Saleh Hamayel, Dennis Banks, and a Who's Who of others on the international human rights front.
Khatib himself was a witness at the Cape Town hearings, testifying to the fact that Israel is in breach of the prohibition on apartheid under international law. New York's tribunal aims to go back to the root of the conflict and focus on UN and US responsibility in the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination.
Walker, Davis, Means, and Banks—all of whom are Black or Native American—are among the Russell Tribunal participants to issue an "urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom." They invite people to attend the hearings in New York City on October 6 and 7, writing, "Each and every one of us—particularly those of us and our fellow jury members who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the United States—is shocked by what Israel is doing to the Palestinians." They continue:
Not since Operation Wetback and Operation Gatekeeper have so many families been torn apart; not since Jim Crow have so many rights been denied; not since reservations and internment camps has the United States invested in so many apartheid walls, fences, and cages.
There is no pretense about these hearings. Its participants understand that institutions held in high esteem, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, have documented Israel's crimes in the past. The ICJ, in a 1,067-page dossier, has already delineated many violations of international law concerning the "separation barrier" or "apartheid wall," the 470-mile-long barrier guarded by soldiers with high-powered weapons and checkpoints.
With sessions concerning the legal responsibility of intergovernmental organizations like the UN and the role of the US in supporting violations of Palestinians' rights, the tribunal is a means of forcing a public debate in the United States to "prevent the crime of silence." The Nobel Prize winner Lord Bertrand Russell penned those words to define the goal of the original people's tribunal in 1966, the International War Crimes Tribunal that placed the crimes of the Vietnam war on trial with the support of Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir, and many others.
In addition to shining a light on the US and UN's crimes behind Israel's crimes, the tribunal aims to stir people to action. The successful example of the international movement against apartheid South Africa that escalated in the 1980s inspires many to divest, boycott, and sanction (BDS) apartheid Israel. Many participants believe the tribunal can give a boost to the rising BDS civil rights movement.
As organizers explain, "The legitimacy of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine does not come from a government or any political party but from the prestige, professional interests and commitment to fundamental rights of the Members that constitute this Tribunal."
It is easy for the US media and social justice-minded people to ignore the arcane doings of intergovernmental bodies. But when "the two most famous Indians since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse," Russell Means and Dennis Banks, stand alongside the most prominent woman of the Black Power movement, Angela Davis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Alice Walker, and the world's leading public intellectual, Noam Chomsky, it is hard to look away.
Registration is now open for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine-NYC, http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/future-sessions. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @RussellTribunal.
Sherry Wolf is the author of Sexuality and Socialism and is a member of Adalah-NY working to build the Russell Tribunal on Palestine-NYC.


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In Public Administration Master's Programs, students learn how to plan, implement, and assess public policy and administer governmental services. Courses offer theoretical, analytical, and practical lenses for exploring how to create, run, and adjust government programs and initiatives. Because curricula often includes communications, management, and business components, students develop skills and knowledge to apply to public, private, and nonprofit settings.
written by Annie Rose Stathes
There are several common avenues through which students pursue a master's in public administration.
In a master's in public admin or public policy program, students typically explore a blend of theoretical and applied concepts that cover organizational governance, finance, and administration. They examine
case studies that provide real-world examples, and they work with classmates and professors to examine historical and contemporary challenges in public administration and policy. More specifically, master's degree programs in MPP and MPA cover a variety of subjects.
Depending on the program and its focus, core curricula could cover a number of areas.
In public administration master's programs, students might study the following subjects to develop their foundational knowledge:
Through their MPA elective coursework, students might opt to study subjects such as:
In an MPA program, students might specialize or concentrate their learning in areas such as:
Similarly, students might be able to pursue "dual degrees," or two degrees at once. Some common pairings are: MPA and Juris Doctor, MPA and Master of Planning, and MPA and Master of Social Work. These are just some options.
In a public policy degree program, students might study these core subjects to develop their foundational knowledge:
Students in MPP programs might concentrate their learning in areas such as:
These are just some of a plethora of subjects in which MPP students might focus their learning.
By and large, the degree requirements for a master's degree in public administration, business administration, public policy, and political science are similar if not the same. In all of them, students complete core courses to develop foundational knowledge in their primary subject and elective courses to develop their knowledge in supplemental subjects. Students may also have options to emphasize certain subjects, concentrate their learning in certain areas, or follow particular tracks. These options and electives help students pursue skills and knowledge in specific areas of public administration or policy that are professionally relevant or of interest to students.
For admissions to their public administration or public policy master's programs, applicants might have to demonstrate having had professional experience in the fields, or they might have to have completed an internship. Otherwise, they might have to commit to participating in an internship during their program. They may have to take the GMAT or GRE for admittance into public policy or public administration master's programs.
To conclude their programs and to officially earn a master's in public policy or public administration, students typically have to successfully complete and defend a thesis and potentially earn a particular score on an oral or written comprehensive exam.
Public policy and public administration master's programs help students develop their knowledge in nonprofit, nongovernmental, and governmental work. Professionals with degrees in the subjects might work at local, state, federal, or international levels, and the might work for public, private, or nonprofit agencies.
Students who earn a degree in public administration or public policy might develop the skills and knowledge to work as:
Many students wonder, "what can I do with a master's in public administration?" These are just some of many potential paths students with master's degrees in public policy or public administration might pursue.
The following are career and salary potentials for professionals who hold an MPP or MPA:
Why Pursue an MPP or MPA? Not all of the occupations listed above require professionals to have a master's degree, but some of them—like urban planning and political scientist—do. And, having a master's degree can enhance your resume and help you gain the skills and knowledge you need to pursue the career of your dreams.
Why wait? You future Public Administration Master's Program could be one click away!
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In the early '70s, comedian Flip Wilson created a character for his NBC television program called "Reverend Leroy" of "The Church of What's Happenin' Now." Like some contemporary "reverends," Reverend Leroy was a con artist who, among other things, once took up an offering to go to Las Vegas, explaining he had to study sin in order to effectively preach against it.
Reverend Leroy would feel right at home in the modern Episcopal Church, which recently voted at its denominational meeting in Anaheim, Calif., to end the ban on the ordination of gay bishops and permit marriage "blessings" for same-sex couples.
Denominational leaders explained they are attempting to stem the exodus from their church by embracing a new doctrine they call "inclusivity," which they hope will attract young people.
Apparently church leaders think that if they can reach people before they have fully matured in their faith, they can sidetrack them into beliefs that have nothing to do with the God that Episcopalians once claimed to worship and that they can be shaped into practical secularists who are willing to seek the approval of men, rather than God.
Inclusivity has nothing to do with the foundational truths set forth in Scripture. The church, which belongs to no denomination, but to its Founding Father and His Son, is about exclusivity for those who deny the faith. The church is inclusive only for those who are adopted by faith into God's family. There are more biblical references to this than there is room to cite here, but for the Episcopal leadership, biblical references no longer have the power to persuade, much less compel them to conform. That's because Episcopal leadership has denied the teachings of Scripture in favor of, well, inclusivity, a word that appears nowhere in Scripture. Even if it did, Episcopal heretics -- for that is what they are -- would choose another word to make them feel more comfortable, since accommodation with the world seems to be a more important objective than the favor of God.
Not to single out Episcopalians for special sanction. Other denominations have been putting themselves through theological makeovers in recent years, as have some of their more prominent members.
Take former President Jimmy Carter (and someone should). Carter, who once attended and occasionally taught a Sunday school class in Washington, which I visited, then claimed to believe much of what Scripture teaches. In practice, though, he was pro-choice on abortion and recently announced his support for same-sex "civil unions." He says he sees nothing prohibitive in Scripture to such arrangements. Carter must have gotten hold of a Reader's Digest condensed version.
Carter has announced he is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention -- the nation's largest Protestant body -- because he claims it treats women as inferior to men. In a statement he said, "At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities."
Carter must have missed the passage about mutual submission between married couples and the requirement that a man love his wife "as Christ loved the church," a very high standard that implies such love be equal to the self-sacrifice demonstrated by Christ on the cross. Such sacrifice can hardly justify any of the sins against women that Carter unfairly ascribes to the Southern Baptist Convention.
If the church -- Episcopal, Baptist, or whatever -- is to be a beacon to an increasingly dark world, it must know not only what it believes but in Whom it has placed its faith. For these Episcopalians and the kinds of Baptists admired by Jimmy Carter, it is a church that has made its bed in the world, and it has as much power to illuminate as a burned-out bulb.


text: Other | 01. March 2010 | posted by Jan Wörner Three years as Chairman of DLR – a challenge every day On 1 March 2007, I assumed the post of Chairman of the Management Board of the German Aerospace Center, DLR, and in doing so, embarked upon a personal change in career of unimagined and unexpected magnitude. The first three of five years in this post are now behind me and it is time to do something akin to drawing up a personal balance sheet, to prepare myself for the decisions and developments required in the future. It all started with 10 years in an engineering business in Frankfurt (König und Heunisch), which gave me the opportunity to turn my studies into reality by working on many fascinating building projects in Germany and abroad. Then came my 5 years as a university lecturer and director of a test institution, where I learned about the unity of purpose between research and teaching. Next came 12 years as President of the Technical University of Darmstadt where I was engaged in the institutional processes involved in imbuing a scientific facility with greater autonomy and was able to experience 'up close and personal' the highs and lows associated with adapting courses of study to bring them in line with the Bologna process, and to be directly involved in making that happen. All of this has culminated, to my great surprise — and the decision is not an easy one to fathom given my background — in my being selected as the successor to Prof. Wittig. To me, the appeal of DLR always was, and still remains, the broad range of topics it covers, coupled with the structural challenges of running such a large research institution. In my last blog I spoke of the subjects of evolution and revolution, and one of the points I proposed in that lecture went something like this: evolutionary (technological) development requires continuity, whereas revolutionary (technological) development requires autonomy. The same is true of institutional structures. The motto of my candidacy for the DLR Board of Management vacancy back in 2006 was this: "Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it" (Antoine de Saint Exupery). This admits the role of doubt in detailed planning and plan delivery. On the other hand, we are compelled to employ the funds entrusted to us by the taxpayer through the upper and lower houses of the German government in a clearly defined and very targeted manner. This is done through our internal programme-based management system, while balancing research policy on the one hand and the strategic aerospace projects of the government on the other. An employee recently gave me a book by Tschingis Aitmatow entitled 'The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years'. The book describes a series of very different events and conveys a deep, but not necessarily inevitable rift between the different worlds, views and expectations of the fictional life of a simple Kazakh, and the coincidence in space and time and of the journey towards extra-terrestrial intelligence. Just like in that novel, the art in many areas of scientific management lies in combining very diverse worlds and methods in a mutually beneficial manner. For the world of DLR, this means that creativity finds the autonomy it needs, that objectives are achieved reliably and that responsibility and decision-making form an indivisible unit. This and more should encompass the expression of ONE DLR; one that has, in the context of the discussions over the last three years, constituted and proven itself to be a key feature of the way we tap potential to its fullest extent. At this juncture, I would not wish in any way to hide the fact that I still perceive substantial deficiencies, in that we still have a long way to go before this way of thinking has been implemented fully. For that reason, we must strive ceaselessly into the future to assure the future of the DLR and the subject areas over which it presides: aerospace, spaceflight, energy, transport and security. On this journey, I hope to receive support from internal as well as external sources. Image credits: DLR. Translated from the original in German.


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As a parent of two preschoolers, I get talked in to many things. This past weekend, I was talked in to decorating our front porch with a string of holiday lights.
For the pre-tax price of $16.99 at Costco, my husband brought home a 33-foot string of 100 multi-colored miniature holiday lights for me to indulge my two little chickadees' wishes.
$16.99?!? Has there been that much inflation in holiday light prices since last season when I purchased what I thought was a virtually identical set for $8.99?
Reading the not-so-fine print on the box, I discovered $16.99 buys you a string of LED holiday lights. My virtually identical string was a string of standard incandescent holiday lights.
Having just replaced all of our recessed ceiling light fixtures with LED retrofits, here is my lay-person's description of the difference between standard incandescent lights and LED lights. While LED lights and standard incandescent lights both create light, the way in which they do it is substantially different . Standard incandescent light fixtures create light by passing electricity through a metal filament until it becomes so hot that it glows. LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, on the other hand, create light from the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material.
These technological differences create some substantial differences in other features of the light fixture that consumers surely care about. For example, incandescent lights generate heat and have a relatively short lifespan because the metal filament burns out. LED lights, on the other hand, generate virtually no heat and have a substantially longer lifespan than incandescent lights. LED lights also use less electricity than standard incandescent lights, which means lower electricity costs to run LED lights compared to incandescent lights. And my personal experience with our new recessed ceiling lights is that LED lights provide a much nicer looking light than standard incandescent ceiling lights.
Is there a downside to LED lights? The biggest drawback of LEDs is the sticker shock: The upfront cost of an LED is substantially more than an incandescent.
I'll be completely honest: It was easy for me to justify the $16.99 based simply on the warm-glow I received from fulfilling my kids' wishes.
But as we hung-up the lights together last night, I considered the table of "Energy Savings Comparison" that the LED holiday light manufacturer provided on the box, presumably put there to help consumers overcome the sticker shock.
In the table that I replicate below, I use my expected seasonal use (8 hours a day for 35 days) and I replace the U.S. average cost of electricity shown on the box with the marginal cost of electricity that I pay to PG&E:
My one-season electricity savings amounts to roughly $2.72, far less than the $8 more in upfront costs from the LED lights. But taking an NPV approach with a 1% discount rate, in just three holiday seasons, the annual electricity cost savings start to swamp the higher upfront costs.
One last calculation before I go back to basking in the warm glow of our holiday lights: The manufacturer states that the average lifespan of the LED holiday light string is 20,000 hours. By that account, I should get around 71 holiday seasons out of my new string of LED lights!
Cross-posted from Energy Economics Exchange (tag line: Research that Informs Business and Social Policy), a blog of the Energy Institute at Haas.


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More of these informative messages would be GREAT. Not knowing what questions to ask nor what info I need or would like to know of is a bit of a handyCrap. Thanks to gcRez and the suggestion with Bitman's reply I now have some idea as to how to use this very SPECIAL software a little more efficiently. One of these days POW!! I will suddenly awaken and do better.
Maybe a thread for Tips & Tricks/w some hidden tools to make your Progy more useful for us DUMMIES. Slow learners, unenlighened, lightning rods, or just plain stupids.Quote:
Originally Posted by bitman
Thank you for this info,


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. . General Description
The newly developed miniature six-component force/torque sensor (20mm in diameter and 16mm in height, patent pending) with full digital output has been developed for the fingertip of the new generation dexterous robot hand DLR Hand-II . It consists of a transducer, high-flex cable, and intelligent DSP based ISA controller. The force and torque measure ranges are 10N for Fx and Fy,40N for Fz, 150Nmm for Mx, My and Mz respectively. Also a 200% mechanical overload protection is provided in the structure.
DSP-Based Interface Systems
DSP-based interface card provides an easy interface between a computer (IBM-AT bus) and a fingertip force/torque transducer. It transmits serial data, use the latest technology to provide 6 degree-offreedom force and torque data at very high bandwidths. Use of a powerful Digital Signal Processing (DSP) allows the ISA card to provide decoupled and digitally filtered data at 7.5 kHz per channel.


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The Plant Doctor - Cold Injury
Winter's cold injuries can lead to future plant problems. Many garden plants will be paying the costs of this winter's cold weather for months or even years to come. Problems may appear at any time, from June through September and even in next year's spring. Wilting leaves or thinning canopy may be seen in the summer's heat. These symptoms may have been caused by last winter's hardships. A plant that doesn't emerge from dormancy in spring may have received the fatal injury last winter.
Unlike animals that escape to safety when temperatures drop, plants withstand whatever comes their way. They prepare for colder temperatures by reducing the amount of free water in their water- (xylem) and food- (phloem) carrying vessels.
If plants don't reduce the amount of free water, ice forms between the plant's cells. The ice draws water from the cells themselves, causing the cells to weaken or collapse.
Injured phloem will carry fewer nutrients to the roots, stunting root growth. Injured xylem will carry less water to the branches and leaves. Both of these problems limit the supply of vitally needed water and salts to the leaves.
Plants that had little time to prepare for cold temperatures will be more severely injured than those that cooled more slowly. Plants that formed tender leaves in response to late prunings or a fall application of nitrogen are particularly susceptible to cold damage, as are plants that have been under stress, such as drought.
Weakened plants may seem to emerge from dormancy and flower just fine. Those buds were formed last year, and the plant set aside necessary nutrients. Once the plant uses up those resources, symptoms may appear.
Symptoms of cold damage may be worse in hot summer weather. Foliage needs extra water during hot weather to help keep the plant cool. In a cold-injured plant, not enough water and nutrients can make it past the injured areas to replace this water. Such damage may appear in branches here and there.
You may see signs of cold damage in almost any plant part. Roots, especially young feeder roots, may be discolored and rot away. Twigs, branches, or the trunk may have split bark, separation of the bark from the cambium, and even sun scalding. Leaves or needles may show tip burn. Fruit may shrink.
The most serious kind of freeze damage is cambial browning. The cambium layer is immediately under the bark, between the woody xylem on the inside and the phloem towards the outside. It brings about continued plant growth. If a look inside a cold split or an exploratory bark peel reveals browning, or worse, a sour smell, the plant is seriously damaged and will likely not live.
Take some time now to check your garden's health. You may need to nurse some plants to better health. First and foremost, you must protect plants from further stress. This means proper watering, fertilization, and pruning.
Provide enough moisture through the dry periods of the year. If leaves show signs of wilting in summer's heat despite adequate soil moisture, misting the foliage will help. Make sure you do not over water the plant. Over watering will keep air from reaching the roots and suffocate them, stressing the plant even more.
Check for cold damage this spring as you clean your garden. Examine trunks, branches, and limbs for cold cracks. Remove affected branches and limbs. You can't do anything for split trunks.
Prune dead wood back to healthy areas once leafing has occurred. This will not only improve the looks of the plant but keep out insects and diseases.
Fertilize the plants with a slow release fertilizer in holes drilled into the soil around the drip line. Do not use a quick release high nitrogen fertilizer. Consult your Extension agent for recommended fertilizers for your area.
Diagnosing winter damage is very difficult in July or August because the injury occurred so long in the past and signs of cold injury maybe difficult to detect.
Be aware of cold damage, but don't blame everything on it. The damage may well be from another source, such as a herbicide or fertilizer burn.
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Humans can get by in the most basic of shelters, can scratch together a meal from the most humble of ingredients. But we can't survive without clean water. And in places where water is scarce -- the world's deserts, for example -- getting water to people requires feats of engineering and irrigation that can be cumbersome and expensive.
A pair of new studies from researchers at The Ohio State University offers a possible solution, inspired by nature.
"We thought: 'How can we gather water from the ambient air around us?'" said Bharat Bhushan, Ohio Eminent Scholar and Howard D. Winbigler Professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State. "And so, we looked to the things in nature that already do that: the cactus, the beetle, desert grasses."
Their findings were published Dec. 24 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The works were co-authored with Ohio State Ph.D. student Dev Gurera and with Ohio State engineering researcher Dong Song.
Bhushan's work focuses on finding nature-inspired solutions to societal problems. In this case, his research team looked to the desert to find life that survives despite limited access to water.
The cactus, beetle and desert grasses all collect water condensed from nighttime fog, gathering droplets from the air and filtering them to roots or reservoirs, providing enough hydration to survive.
Drops of water collect on wax-free, water-repellant bumps on a beetle's back, then slide toward the beetle's mouth on the flat surface between the bumps. Desert grasses collect water at their tips, then channel the water toward their root systems via channels in each blade. A cactus collects water on its barbed tips before guiding droplets down conical spines to the base of the plant.
Bhushan's team studied each of these living things and realized they could build a similar -- albeit larger -- system to allow humans to pull water from nighttime fog or condensation.
They started studying the ways by which different surfaces might collect water, and which surfaces might be the most efficient. Using 3D printers, they built surfaces with bumps and barbs, then created enclosed, foggy environments using a commercial humidifier to see which system gathered the most water.
They learned that conical shapes gather more water than do cylindrical shapes -- "which made sense, given what we know about the cactus," Bhushan said. The reason that happens, he said, is because of a physics phenomenon called the Laplace pressure gradient. Water gathers at the tip of the cone, then flows down the cone's slope to the bottom, where a reservoir is waiting.
Grooved surfaces moved water more quickly than ungrooved surfaces -- "which seems obvious in retrospect, because of what we know about grass," Bhushan said. In the research team's experiments, grooved surfaces gathered about twice as much water as ungrooved surfaces.
The materials the cones were made out of mattered, too. Hydrophilic surfaces -- those that allowed water to bead up rather than absorbing it -- gathered the most water.
"The beetle's surface material is heterogeneous, with hydrophilic spots surrounded by hydrophobic regions, which allows water to flow more easily to the beetle's mouth," Bhushan explained.
The research team also experimented on a structure that included multiple cones, and learned that more water accumulated when water droplets could coalesce between cones that were one or two millimeters apart. The team is continuing those experiments, Bhushan said.
The work so far has been done on a laboratory-only level, but Bhushan envisions the work scaled up, with structures in the desert that could gather water from fog or condensation. That water, he thinks, could supplement water from public systems or wells, either on a house-by-house basis, or on a community-wide basis.
There is precedent for the idea: In areas around the world, including the Atacama Desert in Chile, large nets capture water from fog and collect it in reservoirs for farmers and others to use. Those nets might not be the most efficient way of harnessing water from the air, Bhushan believes.
"Water supply is a critically important issue, especially for people of the most arid parts of the world," Bhushan said. "By using bio-inspired technologies, we can help address the challenge of providing clean water to people around the globe, in as efficient a way as possible."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Laura Arenschield. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
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As I did last year, I thought I would look ahead to the coming year and talk about what I am most looking forward to reading in 2010. Here are six books coming out that I can't wait to read:
1) Kevin Huizenga, The Wild Kingdom (Drawn & Quarterly, due March 16)
The Amazon.com description states that this is going to be 108 pages about Glenn Ganges. Huizenga is one of the best around, and this might be the book that puts him on top.
2) Darwyn Cooke, Parker: The Outfit (IDW, due in October)
I loved Parker: The Hunter, and the idea that there are three more Parker stories from Cooke on the way makes me happy.
3) Farel Dalrymple, The Wrenchies (First Second)
Omega: The Unknown is one of my favorite superhero comic books, and Dalrymple's art is just wonderful. Here's an interview with Dalrymple, where he says "The Wrenchies is a post-apocalyptic, science fiction, fantasy, super-hero, secret agent coming-of-age epic with some existential bullshit thrown in. The Wrenchies are these children in a screwed up futuristic world who resurrect ancient heroes also called the Wrenchies. The whole thing was brought into being by a demon slayer named Sherwood, who opened a door to a secret world when he was a boy. The story is really about this kid Sherwood who has this crazy adventurous life but is now sort of a stoner asshole who causes the entire world to go to crap. It sounds really convoluted but hopefully it will be radical when I am finished with it."
Man I can't wait.
4) Tony Millionaire, Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird (Fantagraphics, June 22)
I enjoyed the first Billy Hazelnuts book, and this one looks like it is just as weird and fun.
5) Matt Fraction, Thor (Marvel)
I dug Fraction's earlier work on Thor (the four one-shots collected in Thor: Ages of Thunder). I'm glad he's taking over as the writer of the ongoing series -- you can tell he loves telling stories about this guy. John Romita Jr. did a cover image (above), but it's not clear whether he'll be the artist. I certainly wouldn't mind that combination. Here is an interview with Fraction.
6) Nate Simpson, Project Waldo
Nate Simpson's art is gorgeous. Although he doesn't have a publisher yet, somebody's got to step up to the plate. This thing looks so good. Here's his blog, which includes more pages and lots of discussion of his process. I'm putting this one last on the list, since there is a good chance it won't actually be published in 2010 because he is still working on it.
Finally, I'd like to point out that one of my "most anticipated comics of 2009" never actually came out in 2009: Paul Pope's Battling Boy. Here's hoping that it appears in 2010. (Also: more Multiple Warheads from Brandon Graham sure would be nice.)
So, what are you looking forward to reading? Brian Chippendale's If 'n Oof? Brendan McCarthy's Spider-Man and Dr. Strange: Fever? Charles Burns' X'ed Out?
That's a wrap.
9 years ago


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Oracle Corp.'s bid to buy Siebel Systems Inc. set Silicon Valley abuzz this fall as gossips gloated over the details of the final chapter in a rivalry that simmered for more than a decade. Siebel founder Thomas Siebel left Oracle in 1990, and three years later started his own firm. For years he has been waging a competitive war against his old boss, Oracle's Larry Ellison, the brash enfant terrible of the Valley. In recent years, a slump in the software industry has weakened Siebel. Oracle has grown stronger, snapping up faltering competitors in a bold bid to be the titan of the software industry. In September, Oracle pounced on Siebel. Cost of the coup: $5.85 billion.
Was it sweet revenge for Ellison? If so, then Thomas Siebel's pain was allayed by plenty of money in his pocket. Investment bankers employed a complicated deal structure aimed at minimizing Mr. Siebel's tax bill. With the help of an arcane but effective tool called the horizontal double dummy, the deal will mean millions in tax savings for Siebel while at the same time offering certain advantages to Oracle. In this transaction, everyone wins — except, maybe, the Internal Revenue Service.
Tax lawyers first devised the double dummy in the 1970s. One of the first big corporate deals to use the strategy was Unilever U.S. when it purchased National Starch and Chemical Corp. in 1978. Robert Willens, a tax and accounting specialist with investment banker Lehman Brothers in New York, calls the device "the most creative structure I have ever seen." (Lehman investment bankers have advised both acquiring and target companies on six double-dummy deals since 1996, including the 2004 Sears, Roebuck/Kmart merger.)
Despite the tax advantages, the double dummy has rarely been used, in part because it complicates the corporate structure by creating a permanent holding company at the top. Since 1996, the number of mergers using the structure totals 104, or fewer than 1 percent of the total number of deals, according to Capital IQ, a division of Standard and Poor's. Still, there have been some very high-profile double-dummy transactions, including Walt Disney's purchase of ABC/Capital Cities, Berkshire Hathaway's purchase of General Re, and Time Warner's purchase of Turner Broadcasting.
Under the terms of the deal announced in September, Oracle is offering $10.66 for each share of Siebel stock. The offer represented a premium of 26 percent over the price Siebel shares were commanding on Nasdaq in September. San Mateo, California-based Siebel had been a highflier — its stock once traded at more than $100 — but it had stumbled in recent years amid weakening demand for its product, software that helps companies analyze sales and customer needs.
In this transaction, the double dummy offers the greatest benefit to Siebel's large individual shareholders, especially to Thomas Siebel, the single largest individual shareholder. Siebel holds 36.2 million shares, or 7 percent of his company's common stock. At $10.66 a share, his stake is valued at $386 million. (At the time of the proposed bid by Oracle, he also held an additional 11.2 million stock options.) Siebel likely has a small basis in the stock, having acquired it when the company was launched in 1993.
For him and for other large shareholders that have a small basis, an all-cash buyout would have meant an enormous capital gain. The double-dummy structure provides tax-free treatment on the stock portion of the transaction, which is expected to be finalized early next year.
Top Priority
Clearly, Siebel's tax bill was a top priority in this deal. In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Oracle and Siebel call the tax-free double dummy an "inducement" for Thomas Siebel. Interestingly, in its yearlong buying spree, Oracle has spent billions to acquire 11 companies, including PeopleSoft. Other than Siebel, not one used the double-dummy scheme.
Here's how a double dummy worked for Oracle and Siebel: First, the companies formed a new holding company. Thus, Ozark Holdings was created. Ozark then created two transitory subsidiaries, the so-called dummies. One will merge with Oracle, the other with Siebel Systems. Oracle and Siebel will survive the double-dummy mergers; the dummy companies will be shut down. Oracle shareholders will exchange their stock on a one-for-one basis, tax free, for stock in Ozark. Siebel shareholders will exchange their stock for cash or stock in Ozark (but no more than 30 percent of the consideration can be stock). Siebel's shareholders will pay taxes only on the cash portion of the transaction.
The stock portions of the transactions qualify as tax free under Section 351 of the Tax Code, which is not bound by the continuity-of-interest rule of Section 368. However, Ozark must remain in place permanently. Terminating the holding company would jeopardize the tax-free nature of the deal. That's because Section 351 requires that the tax-free stock transfer between Ozark Holdings and the two operating companies be substantive in nature, notes Mark Boyer, a tax attorney with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Thomas Siebel could have achieved tax savings on a more common deal structure: a tax-free reorganization under Section 368. But under this structure, Siebel and other shareholders would have had to take at least 40 percent of the compensation in stock. It might have been a good deal for them, but it would have punished Oracle shareholders by diluting earnings per share beyond an acceptable level. Structured as the deal is now, with stock consideration limited to 30 percent of the merger's total value, dilution of Oracle's earnings per share will be modest, even if the Siebel stock payout reaches the full 30 percent.
Sometimes, double dummies are built into deals as a sort of safety net. Investment bankers have structured some mergers with a trigger that activates a double dummy under certain conditions. That ensures tax savings in volatile situations, but allows for a simpler deal structure when possible. Witness the $3.1 billion acquisition of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. by Devon Energy Corp. in 2002. Devon offered a 50-50 cash and stock buyout of shareholders in Mitchell Energy. George Mitchell and his family, who owned 47 percent of Mitchell Energy, insisted that the transaction be structured to ensure that Devon common stock received by shareholders would be tax-free.
Bigger Targets
In its filings, Oklahoma City–based Devon offered a choice of two merger structures: a double dummy or the more commonly used reorganization under Section 368. At the time, points out Devon CFO Brian Jennings, oil and gas prices were falling, and consequently so was the company's stock price. If Devon's stock price had dropped before the reorganization was complete, the 40 percent equity-consideration threshold might not have been met and shareholders receiving stock, including the Mitchell family, would have been taxed immediately on the receipt of Devon stock. That's why Devon proposed a double dummy as a hedge. Ultimately, Devon and Mitchell never had to use the double dummy.
Delaware recently made it easier for companies incorporated within the state to expedite a double dummy with changes in state law. Delaware no longer requires stockholder approval for the "sale, lease, or exchange" of corporate assets between a parent company and its subsidiaries. Ozark Holdings is a Delaware corporation.
Marie Leone is senior editor of CFO.com.
Big Dummies A list of the largest double-dummy transactions by deal value includes some of Wall Street's most memorable mergers. | |||
Year | Merger Partners | Deal Value* | |
2000 | AOL/Time Warner | $164 | |
2000 | SmithKline Beecham/Glaxo Wellcome | 80 | |
1998 | Daimler-Benz/Chrysler | 61 | |
2001 | Conoco/Philips Petroleum | 27 | |
2004 | Kmart/Sears, Roebuck | 20 | |
*In $ billions Source: Capital IQ |


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March 09, 2014
The place of the Armenian language in the Indo-European family
Of course the testimony of Herodotus is -at least for me- the most convincing argument for an ultimately Balkan origin of the Phrygo-Armenians.
Modern Armenians are quite distinct from modern populations of the Balkans but who knows how both they and the populations of the Balkans have changed since the beginning of the Iron Age when the Phrygians established themselves in Asia Minor? The recent study by Hellenthal et al. did not find any good evidence for recent admixture in Armenians but this might be due to (i) Armenians being unmixed descendants of Proto-Armenians, (ii) Armenians being near-unmixed descendants of pre-Armenians, or (iii) the method not having enough power to detect admixture.
My guess is that the relative remoteness of the Armenian highlands coupled with the heterodox position of the Armenian church hindered substantial gene flow into the Armenian population over at least the last 1,500 years.
14 comments:
- AgnosticThought said...
Without extensive archaic DNA, this linguistic analysis of Armenian is just an exercise in futility and likely to misguide us. The biggest obstacle here is Turkey's obfuscation of the Armenian Highlands. Granted, the BEAN project is an attempt at this, but without extensive analysis of the Highlands, it will largely remain incomplete. Turkey's lack of interest in the indigenous history of the population, as well as groups that have remained largely conserved, is a huge issue that will not resolve until their revisionist policies are rescinded.
- Monday, March 10, 2014 3:29:00 pm
- Gary said...
I listened to the talk, and Greek, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian are not the only languages that retains pattern of initial vowel in that particular class of words:
ὀστοῦν/ostoun (Ancient Greek)
oskor (Armenian)
óhstien (Mohawk)
ostokhān (Persian)
kost (Czech)
ὀφθαλμός/ophthalmos (Ancient Greek)
ačʿkʿ (Armenian)
okà:ra (Mohawk)
oculus (Latin)
akis (Lithuanian)
oko (Czech)
One area where Greek and Armenian differ is in the first person pronoun: Armenian es appears to be related to Kurdish ez , min. Greek and Latin ego on the other hand may be derived from first-person pronomial affixes in the Iroquoian family:
Mohawk (Pronomial affixes) ke- /ka- /ki- /ken- /ko- /wake- /waka- /waki- /waken- /wako- /wak-
Cherokee (Class B affix) aqu- /ag(i),
while Armenian es and Kurdish ez may ultimately be derived from the Cherokee standalone pronoun form for 'I', ayv (Note: 'v' represents nasal 'u') --> Saka azu --> Old Church Slavonic azu --> Lithuanian aš.
However, words for 'water' in Greek and Armenian, nero and ǰur respectively, appear to be more likely derived from Yeniseian languages: e.g., Kett ul/Kott ur. Hydronymic terms in the Balkans tend to confirm that languages related to Yeniseian may have been spoken there prior to Indo-Europeanization. - Monday, March 10, 2014 5:04:00 pm
- andrew said...
A fairly conventional narrative for the origins of the Armenia language assume that the Indo-European Greek language (to distinguish it from pre-Greek languages spoken before Indo-Europeans arrive) appears in the general vicinity of the Aegean ca. 2000 BCE +/- a couple centuries at which point there is rapid language change due to substrate influences and language split differentiation effects.
At about the same time the Hittite language expands with the Hittite empire (mostly displacing non-Indo-European languages present in Anatolia) starting around the same time until the Hittite empire collapses ca. 1200 BCE. Hittite likewise experiences substrate and language differentiation effects involving people linguistically quite different from the pre-Greeks.
The Phyrgians speak a distinctive dialect of Greek on the Hittite empire fringe (with some minor Hittite linguistic influence), and when the Hittite empire collapses there is a folk migration of Phyrgians to "greater Armenia" sometime after the collapse of the Hittite empire ca. 1200 BCE and before classical Greek and Roman civilization start to emerge ca. 800 BCE. Chaos in the Anatolian interregenum of Hittite empire successor states between Bronze Age collapse and the rise of Iron Age civilizations, aided and abetted by a multi-century arid period isolates these Armenians from the Hellenic linguistic cousins and puts them geographically close to the Indo-Iranians of Persian who derived from an entirely different branch of the Indo-European languages from the Greeks, as well as to weakened local Caucasian substrate populations. Isolation and areal influences from the nearby Indo-Iranians causes the Armenian language to change in the direction of old Persian which has similar substrate influences to Armenian upon its arrival in its homeland. Isolation and areal influences simmer for about 1100-1500 years until Alexander the Great comes along and Hellanizes everyone from Anatolia to the fringes of South Asia, reinjecting a new layer of Greek influence into Armenian. After centuries of this second wave Greek influence on Armenian, the language becomes much more isolated until the 19th century CE or so, as Armenians become an island surrounded by Muslims with whom they have little linguistic sharing.
The end result is an Armenian language that is ultimately a genetic descendant of the family of languages that spawn ancient Greek, but with more Indo-Iranian characteristics from areal influences than any of the other Western Indo-European languages, almost giving a false impression that it holds a basal position linguistically. - Monday, March 10, 2014 10:19:00 pm
- Dienekes said...
However, words for 'water' in Greek and Armenian, nero and ǰur respectively, appear to be more likely derived from Yeniseian languages: e.g., Kett ul/Kott ur
"Nero" is not an ancient Greek word for water. It comes from an ancient word meaning "fresh" (νηρός). - Monday, March 10, 2014 11:18:00 pm
- Unknown said...
Turkey's lack of interest stems because they only settled in modern Turkey from ~600AD. They are foreigners and not the indigenous ancient people.
Of course what they absorbed in the original people became "turks" - Tuesday, March 11, 2014 8:10:00 am
- Unknown said...
Thanks for sharing Dienekes. I especially enjoyed the transitional pronunciations midway between the Proto-Indo-European forms and the Classical Armenian variations.
The recent study by Hellenthal et al. did not find any good evidence for recent admixture in Armenians but this might be due to (i) Armenians being unmixed descendants of Proto-Armenians, (ii) Armenians being near-unmixed descendants of pre-Armenians, or (iii) the method not having enough power to detect admixture.
All prior studies point quite consistently towards the second scenario. Today, it is essentially safe to consider the Armenians as the linguistically Indo-Europeanized autochthonous population of their historic homeland. The true challenge facing Armenology is determining where, when and how the Proto-Armenian language parted ways with Greek and Old Phrygian, and how it evolved across the Armenian Highland. My hope is that future genetic discoveries can shed further light on this axiomatic issue.
- Tuesday, March 11, 2014 6:05:00 pm
- Jim said...
"Today, it is essentially safe to consider the Armenians as the linguistically Indo-Europeanized autochthonous population of their historic homeland."
The same thing is probably true of the Kurds as well. - Wednesday, March 12, 2014 12:43:00 am
- Gary said...
Dienekes noted: "Nero" is not an ancient Greek word for water. It comes from an ancient word meaning "fresh" (νηρός).
Thanks for the correction. I was looking at the wrong column in my spreadsheet.
There are some issues with the etymology for 'water' (hydor) online in Etymonline.com: ... "from PIE *wod-or, from root *wed- (1) "water, wet" (cf. Hittite watar, Sanskrit udrah, Greek hydor, Old Church Slavonic and Russian voda, Lithuanian vanduo, Old Prussian wundan, Gaelic uisge "water;" Latin unda "wave")"
Most PIE word lists I have seen referenced state that the PIE word for 'water' was *akwa, which is very close to the Proto-Iroquoian equivalent *ahwa. This is consistent with the a- affix we see in words for 'water' in other IE languages such as Italo-Celtic (e.g. aqua) and Indo-Iranian (e.g. Persian ab).
The version of Hittite I have seen shows that it originally written wa-a-tar. It appears that two initial syllables were transposed (i.e. metathesis) from the original IE word and that this is a compound word composed of words for 'water' in two different languages. Later, the a- was dropped entirely and we get the form seen in some other IE languages, such as the Germanic family. The -tar word particle is still found in Persian as the word for 'wet" and as part of Proto-Iroquoian words for 'lake': *-ōtar- and *-nyatar. (While the word for 'lake' in most European IE languages is thought to be derived from PIE *laku- - 'basin', the Iroquoian form apparently survives as 'tarn' for 'mountain lake'.) In turn, -tar is quite likely related to water words in Dene-Yeniseian languages: ta, tʰa, and tu. Elsewhere in these blogs I have described how the Yeniseian forms for 'water' (ul, ur appear to have turned up in Balkan hydronyms, and appears to contribute to Lithuanian word aleti ('flooded'). - Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:04:00 am
- AdygheChabadi said...
To anyone:
I think DNA has told as much as it can tell.
Linguistics has shed much light on this issue though. Armenian has a substrate of Hurro-Urartian adoptions. This means that Armenian overlay a language that already existed in the area. This strongly indicates that Armenian is intrusive. To further add to this, there is linguistic evidence of Armenian sharing some "Pre-Greek" lexicon with Greek. Armenian also has Kartvelian adoptions, even some that can be reconstructed at the proto-level for Armenian. Armenian shares this with Greek also. Many "Pre-Greek" words are from a Kartvelian-esque language. There are a couple of "Pre-Greek" Hattic adoptions shared by both Armenian and Greek. There is areal morphological substratal influence from the Northwest (Abkhaz[o]-Adyghean), Northeast (Nakh-Dagestanian), and South (Kartvelian) Caucasian languages in Armenian also (glottalic stops). Again, strongly suggesting Armenian intrusiveness. There are other linguistic evidences also.
(I need to be better about proof-reading) - Wednesday, March 12, 2014 8:49:00 pm
- Gary said...
After doing some research, it appears that the creators of the Etymologyonline entry for 'water'/hydor had an agenda: to promote an alternative derivation of PIE words for 'water' that indicate that it is derived from Proto-Uralic weti. Of course their dog doesn't hunt because their derivation ignores words for 'water' in IE families that do not have the '-tar' component.
I did find an intriguing item that might have some bearing on this issue in an unlikely place: an entry in Curtius' discursive and barely readable "Principles of Greek Etymology" referencing words from an unspecified language in which -tar was likely the word for 'water':
"tar-a-wa-s, tar-i-s 'boat', tar-anta-s 'sea'
I have yet to identify this language, but it is a good candidate for the one that contributed the -tar component to Hittite. I also have not been able to find a good etymology for the name of the son of Poseidon, Taras, which I suspect may also be related to water and may be derived from some Balkan or Anatolian substrate language.
By the way, the theory that the Iroquoian language of North America is somehow related to Greek goes back to almost the beginning of the 18th century with Pere Joseph-Francois Lafitau, a Jesuit missionary to the Iroquois. Lafitau believed the Iroquois to be the descendants of the Lycians, based in part of similarities in customs and even proposed etymologies for Greek words based on Iroquoian languages. Rev. J. A. Cuoq, studying Iroquois almost two centuries later, was also struck by the resemblance of Iroquoian languages to Greek.
It is interesting that there appears to be convergent evolution between Modern Greek and North American languages. I ran across this interesting article on polysynthesis in Modern Greek and how it compares to Iroquoian languages.
http://www.linguistik-online.de/34_08/charitonidis.html - Thursday, March 13, 2014 6:23:00 am
- Jim said...
"Again, strongly suggesting Armenian intrusiveness. "
Also strongly suggesting a much wider early distribution of all those language families.
Armenian is intrusive, but historically its center of mass was much westward and southward of its present location. The pattern is continual eastward expansion with a loss of territory in the west. That suggests all those early influences from those groups took place when Armenian was much further west. - Thursday, March 13, 2014 6:28:00 am
- AdygheChabadi said...
I agree with you. Especially those "Pre-Greek" words only shared by Greek and Armenian. They are excellent evidence of Armenian being spoken much further west. Hittite adoptions are present in Armenian as well. - Saturday, March 15, 2014 3:09:00 pm
- AgnosticThought said...
The westward migration of Armenian from Lesser Armenia, into the East is no different than the Northern and Eastern migration of Kartvelian languages into non-Karvelian Caucasian language groups. Even in recent times, the expansion of Karvelian languages has been documented. Regardless of where the language had origins, ultimately, the population is most likely conserved as it is among Armenians, even within the east.
- Monday, March 17, 2014 2:47:00 pm
- Unknown said...
In finnish, tar is probably original name for piss. On this basis tar-a-wa-s can be Terävä (sharp flavour) and tar-anta-s (to give the tar). Todays Tarjoilija/waiter and parantaja/healer. Of course the tar (resin) has been used for medicinal purposes, but i think, in this context, this is an older stratum.
- Tuesday, March 25, 2014 9:33:00 am


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This is a rich visual description of the Lord giving His Disciples Holy Communion of both His Body and His Blood, as He is dressed as a bishop and is distributing the Holy Gifts from the holy altar. The gold background is luminous and almost shimmers behind the tapestry of forms to the forefront, and complements the many colors present, especially the reds, greens, whites, and browns. The Disciples are subdued and reverent, and attentive to the revelation of this great Mystery. This is the beginning of Life.
The Christian Faith is not just a philosophical tradition of theological truths with manifold rituals attached, as is the case for many other religions. It directly imparts God to its adherents through Holy Communion into their very beings and bodies, for this is both physical and spiritual food that grows through all Eternity. Christ unites Himself to us directly through Communion.
The icon was painted on the Island of Corfu in 1665. All twelve Disciples are present, but Judas, already darkened with sin, hides in the back, and will shortly receive these Gifts unworthily. As for us, "Of Thy Mystical Supper accept me today…."
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Heritage | Greek |
Movable Church Feast Day 1 | Great & Holy Thursday |
Style | Egg Tempera |
Location | Theotokos Kassopitras Monastery, Corfu, Greece |
Iconographer | Skufoy, Philotheos |
Date | 1665 |


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Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
About The post. [volume] (Middleburg, Snyder County, Pa.) 1864-1883
Middleburg, Snyder County, Pa. (1864-1883)
- Title:
- The post. [volume] : (Middleburg, Snyder County, Pa.) 1864-1883
- Place of publication:
- Middleburg, Snyder County, Pa.
- Geographic coverage:
- Publisher:
- Crouse and Benfer
- Dates of publication:
- 1864-1883
- Description:
- Began in 1864.
- Ceased in Feb. 1883?
- Frequency:
- Weekly
- Language:
- English
- Subjects:
- Middleburg (Snyder County, Pa.)--Newspapers.
- Pennsylvania--Middleburg (Snyder County)--fast--(OCoLC)fst01314892
- Pennsylvania--Snyder County.--fast--(OCoLC)fst01205439
- Snyder County (Pa.)--Newspapers.
- Notes:
- Absorbed: Freeburg courier. Cf. Salisbury, R. Pa. newspapers.
- Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
- Description based on: Vol. 7, no. 48 (Feb. 10, 1870).
- Editor: Jeremiah Crouse, <1876>.
- Publisher:s Jeremiah Crouse, <Jan. 1, 1867-1870>; T.H. Harter, <1883>.
- Republican. Cf. Ayer, 1972.
- sn 84026106
- 10317117
- 2327-6460
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The post. [volume] February 10, 1870 , Image 1
The Middleburgh Post
The area becoming Snyder County was settled in the 1740s by Pennsylvania Germans from Berks and Lancaster Counties, and the strong German presence continued into modern times. Parallel ridges of the Appalachian Mountains enclose rolling hills and flat creek valleys. The Susquehanna River marks the county's eastern border. Political interest arose in 1853 to halve Union County and rename the northern part Buffalo County, after the existing Buffalo Valley. When the split was formalized on March 2, 1855, the northern part remained Union County and the southern became Snyder, honoring Simon Snyder, the third governor of Pennsylvania and the first of German descent. Snyder had served from 1808 to 1817 and was a resident of Selinsgrove, now in Snyder County, from 1784 until his death in 1819. A popular vote in 1856 narrowly confirmed the legislative decision creating the new county, and voters chose Middleburg as the county seat, over Selinsgrove or Freeburg. Selinsgrove tried again to win the county seat, in 1866, but lost in that balloting also.
Agriculture has always been Snyder County's main economic base, but historically the economy also included lumbering, iron ore and coal mining, and small factories. Middleburg's site had a tavern in 1787 run by John Swineford, and the settlement was originally known as Swinefordstown (Swinefordstettle in Pennsylvania German). Frederick Evans laid out the town in 1800, and around 1825 the town on Middle Creek, near the center of Centre Township, became known as Middleburgh. The "burgh" suffix is of Scottish nomenclature, while "burg" is Germanic, but it is possible that the name Middleburgh was decided by the United States Post Office Department, as that was the name of the first post office in Snyder County, founded on March 2, 1855. The name of the post office was changed in 1893 to Middleburg, following policies adopted in 1891 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, tasked with bringing nationwide uniformity. These included, "The dropping of the final 'h' in the termination 'burgh.'" Both spellings of the town name seem to have been used locally over the years.
The Post was launched in Middleburgh in 1864. Under Editor Jeremiah Crouse, beginning in January 1867, the Post was a weekly Republican newspaper, providing a fairly commonplace mixture of popular literature, reprinted news items from all over, and local news and advertising. In December 1882, Crouse sold out to Thomas Hess Harter, a Pennsylvania German from Centre County who had owned a small weekly newspaper in Ohio, selling it to buy the Post. Harter renamed the newspaper the Middleburgh Post in 1883 and sought ways to convey his views on political corruption and immoral social practices without publishing rantings that might repel his audience. Harter's solution, proving wildly popular, was to pen a weekly satirical letter to the editor in Pennsylvania German dialect under the name Gottlieb Boonastiel. Harter's first Boonastiel creation appeared on July 19, 1888, when the paper's circulation was about 900; by 1892 it had risen to 1,570, with subscribers threatening to quit if the letters ended. While the letters helped his newspaper to flourish, Harter also is credited with preserving and standardizing the Pennsylvania German dialect.
Harter sold the Middleburgh Post in 1894 to George Washington Wagenseller. In 1916, Wagenseller merged his paper with the Snyder County News to form the Middleburgh Post and Snyder County News. Sixteen months later, the title reverted back to the Middleburgh Post . In 1928, the "h" was finally dropped to become the Middleburg Post .
Provided by: Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA


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Intel will soon release new low-power processors for a class of thin and light laptops that bridge the gap between netbooks and mainstream laptops, a company spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.
The new processors will be available under Intel's Core i3 and Core i5 brands and will power laptops that are as portable as netbooks but have larger screens and greater functionality. Called ultrathin laptops, these PCs are usually priced between US$400 and $800 and provide performance that is adequate to run standard applications and high-definition multimedia.
An Intel road map presented during a webcast on Thursday showed that the chips will be less powerful than the standard-voltage Core i3 and Core i5 laptop processors, which are priced between $133 and $294, according to an Intel price list. However, the new processors will be faster than Intel's Atom chips, which go into netbooks.
The road map also showed that the chips are due for release this quarter. The Intel spokeswoman declined comment on further chip details such as release date, performance and pricing. However, ultrathin processors are generally cheaper than mainstream laptop chips.
The new processors will reach laptops in the second half of the year, said Stephen Smith, vice president and director of PC client operations and enabling at Intel, during a webcast speech.
The chips will be made using the latest 32-nanometer manufacturing process, Smith said. The processors could provide a significant performance and power-savings boost over the first ultrathin chips introduced last year by Intel under the Core and Pentium brands. Intel's Core i3 and Core i5 processors integrate the CPU and graphics processor inside a single chip package, which could improve graphics performance while drawing less power. The chips are also capable of running two threads per one core, which could improve application performance.
The ultrathin laptop category first emerged when AMD introduced its Athlon Neo processors in January last year. Intel followed suit, releasing new ultrathin chips a few months later. The laptops were expected to fill a power and performance gap between netbooks and mainstream laptops, but adoption rates were slow.
However, research firm iSuppli said in a statement on Thursday that shipments of ultrathin laptops will pick up this year. iSuppli estimated that ultrathin shipments to total 14.5 million, a 93 percent increase from the 7.5 million ultrathin laptops that shipped last year. iSuppli estimated total laptop shipments to be 209.5 million units this year, a 25.5 per cent year-over-year growth.
Acer was the top ultrathin laptop maker last year, shipping 5 million units, followed by Asustek, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sony. Apple hasn't yet adopted ultrathin processors for its laptops.


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Senior operating executives looking to produce a wider variety and higher volume of products may think it's time to expand the plant or invest in new equipment. But in many cases, they can improve their current output from their existing machinery. The methods described below look at how faster setup times and improved equipment performance can translate into increased capacity, more flexibility, reduced lead time and costs, and better quality and speed, reducing the need for capital equipment and inventory. The authors present four real-world examples of setup reduction opportunities for food and beverage manufacturing operations.
Supermarket shelves look quite different today than they did even 10 years ago. Food and beverage manufacturers have responded to market-segmentation opportunities with an explosion of product and packaging options, such as low-fat and gluten-free foods, as well as multi-pack and individual-portion offerings. As product and packaging variation has increased the level of complexity, manufacturers are finding that their production lines cannot keep up because of the additional shutdowns required to change from one product type to another.
Such capacity constraints naturally lead to outsourcing and capital expense requests to add new production lines and even build whole new plants. But there is an alternative. Shorter setup and changeover times can allow food and beverage manufactures to meet today's demands for greater product variety. They will be able to respond to seasonal demands, reduce finished goods inventory and boost output without making significant capital investments.
Nearly 30 years after Shigeo Shingo introduced manufacturers to the fundamentals of rapid equipment changeovers (in the form of single-minute exchange of dies, or SMED), this discussion reviews some new ways to push beyond Shigeo Shingo's work to gain additional capacity. Here are some real-world examples of how food and beverage manufacturers have made major reductions anew in equipment changeover and setup times.
Capitalize on Employee Creativity
Rising demand for healthier food and beverage options has increased the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) in plant warehouses and on retail shelves. This SKU proliferation has forced food and beverage manufacturers to increase the number of changeovers per shift. Secondary packaging options, such as single-serve or tray packs, also have contributed to higher-frequency changeovers or outsourcing.
Here's an example of an improvement that cut the changeover time to 36 minutes, a 55 percent reduction. One food processing plant that we work with was being hindered by capacity constraints in its bagging operation because of bag-size variations. The product moves from a scale to a chute that deposits the product into plastic or paper bags. The bags come in three different sizes. When operators needed to switch to another size, they had to shut down the bagging machine, remove the chute and replace it with a different attachment. The process took about 80 minutes to complete.
During a brainstorming session, plant employees came up with an ingenious idea to modify the chute so it could handle multiple sizes. The modification eliminated the need to shut down the machine and replace the chute each time they changed bag sizes.
Enlist Line Operators and Easy-to-Use Fixtures
When food and beverage manufacturers cut changeover times, they can reduce batch sizes, which lessens the need to manage additional SKU requirements by increasing finished-goods inventory. Lower finished-goods inventory levels reduce product-handling and storage costs, spoilage and reduce working-capital requirements. In the following example, the solution helped the plant collapse the changeover time on a packaging line from nine hours to just 19 minutes. The change also completely eliminated the need for an off-shift changeover crew, and facilitated a significant reduction in finished-goods inventory of slower-moving SKUs.
To address long changeover times on its automated glass-packaging line that forced the plant to stockpile finished goods, a manufacturer of instant coffee and nondairy creamer assembled a cross-functional team. The team included an engineer, a couple of maintenance technicians and several line workers.
Working together, they redesigned the conveyor to eliminate the need for tools, so anyone on the line could perform conveyor rail adjustments. This allowed the skilled workers (mechanics) to focus on more complex tasks, such as adjusting the machinery, while the line operators adjusted the conveyor rails.
In addition, by designing clearly marked measuring blocks and fixtures based on product size for each machine, the team eliminated time-consuming measurements and the need for multiple adjustments after startup. They also hung color-coded parts on a wall near the line with all the tools needed to perform the changeover, shortening the time workers spent searching for tools.
Create Production Plans That Minimize Product Waste
One of the more costly consequences of poor setup practices is product loss. A manufacturer of frozen meals routinely dumped food because its production planning cycle was not sophisticated enough to minimize waste when the line switched to a new product. Machines would dispense mashed potatoes and gravy through two separate pipes into a tray. When they switched the line over to another meal configuration, workers dumped any product remaining in the pipes into a trash can before cleaning out the pipes for the next SKU.
Working with production managers, we discovered that they could reduce the food waste by aligning production so each pipe processed similar products in sequence. Now, if multiple meals call for mashed potatoes as a side dish, the plant processes those items consecutively rather than moving to a dinner that calls for pudding, for instance, and then back to mashed potatoes.
In this situation, the changes led to a yield improvement of 0.25 to 0.50 percent per day, converting food that would have been scrapped at a fee into sellable product.
Test Equipment Prior to Changeovers
A typical processor of French fries may pack 30,000 pounds of product per hour. The cost of stopping such high-volume food-processing lines quickly adds up. One manufacturer that we work with faced 30-minute shutdowns when it switched to a different type of heated jaws to seal the packaging bags. Adding to the downtime, thermocouples and heating elements would occasionally cause the replacement jaws to malfunction.
One of Shingo's core mandates for reducing setup times is to convert internal processes to external processes. Internal tasks are anything that requires the shutdown of a machine or line. External tasks can be performed while machines are running.
In this case, as part of a setup reduction initiative, the plant added a digital multimeter to its changeover carts. Prior to the changeover, operators now test the jaws with the multimeter to ensure they're working. If they are not working properly, the operator can fix the issue before the actual changeover.
This simple procedure change converted a maintenance task from an internal operation (while the line was down) to an external task that can be accomplished while the line was still running. This basic step saved about 30 minutes of downtime for each occurrence.
To Sum Up
Operational leaders don't have to accept average performance when it comes to equipment uptime. Each of the above examples capitalizes on the fundamental principles and practices for reducing setup and changeover times. By analyzing current performance, leveraging the creativity of employees and moving internal setup steps to external, food and beverage manufacturers can manage current demands with existing capacity and respond to new market opportunities as they arise.
About the Authors
David Pate is Managing Director, Business Development, TBM North America. Ken Van Winkle is a Senior Management Consultant for TBM. Steve Weise is a Client Manager in TBM's Food and Beverage Practice. Keith Yeater is Vice President of TBM's Food and Beverage and Consumer Products Practice.


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Homeowner Support
Support Details
In order for us to provide you with the best possible support, please fill out the Homeowner Contact Information form to inform of us any changes to your contact information. If you are unsure of what we have on file, just fill out the form anyway, and we will ensure that your household information is current.
Jackson Teton County Affordable Housing (JTCAH) is here to help owners of JTCAH program homes. We recommend that you call us whenever you have a question about the requirements in your home's Special Restrictions or Ground Lease. This way you can feel confident that you know exactly what is allowed and will not be in violation of the regulations governing the use of your home. Following are some common reasons homeowners contact JTCAH for direction or clarification:
There are two types of covenants recorded on JTCAH program homes. One is the Special Restriction and the other is Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CCRs). The Special Restrictions are JTCAH's responsibility to oversee and the CCRs are the Homeowner's Association's (HOA) responsibility to oversee. Examples of things normally under the HOA are pets, parking, landscaping, fences, unsightliness, and HOA dues.
Examples of things under JTCAH are improvement credits, maintenance, estimated home appreciation, occupancy and use. If you aren't sure, please call JTCAH to find out.
Maintenance is something that every owner of a home has to do whether it is an owner of a market home or a restricted home. Once you become a homeowner, there is no longer a landlord to turn to when something breaks or needs caring for.
One of JTCAH's role is to be a steward of the restricted homes because they are a community asset. The taxpayers of this community have invested a subsidy in restricted homes in order to make them affordable to the community's workforce. This is a benefit to both the homeowner and to the community because it furthers the goal of housing at least 65% of the workforce locally.
To ensure that these community assets are maintained over time, when an owner sells their Affordable or Employment-based home, JTCAH hires a third party inspector to inspect the home to find items that may need replaced or repaired. Before the home can be sold, these items all need to be taken care of. It is in the best interest of the homeowner not to allow their home to fall into disrepair or there could be some expensive items to take care of at time of sale.
Since Attainable home sales are not facilitated by JTCAH, we have no way to ensure that maintenance is kept up. This is taken care of in the negotiation of the price, the same as with market home sales.
Affordable and Employment-based homes may be refinanced for up to 95% of their estimated appreciated value. This provides a cushion of equity in the home for the owner because the estimated appreciated value is not a guarantee when the home sells. It also provides a cushion for any deferred maintenance items that may exist.
Most restrictions do not allow you to rent your home without prior approval from JTCAH. You are responsible to follow the proper procedures and get approval if you feel you need to rent your home. Examples of reasons JTCAH has given approval in the past to rent are; going away to school, medical emergencies, and financial issues. Apply for approval to rent now by viewing the Owner Request to Rent Form. To learn more about JTCAH policies on renting, view the Rental Policy page.
Leave of Absence
Most restrictions allow owners to be away from their home for two months per year. Sometimes owners wish to leave for longer, but do not want to rent their home while they are gone. This requires approval from JTCAH. To apply for a leave of absence, please submit the Owner Request for Leave of Absence Form.
Capital Improvement Credit
Owners of Affordable and Employment-based homes may be eligible to receive credit at time of sale for approved capital improvements. The Special Restrictions require that you get approval from JTCAH for any improvements prior to doing the work. For information about the types of improvements that can receive credit, see JTCAH's Capital Improvement Policy. To apply for Capital Improvement Credit approval use the Owner Request for Capital Improvement Credit.
Transfer of Title
Owners often have their situations change such as in marriage or divorce and would like to change the title on their home. The restrictions do not allow non-qualified transfers of title. This means JTCAH must qualify each transfer of title. If you would like to transfer title, please submit the Owner Request for Transfer of Title Form. Because there are document preparation fees and recording fees, JTCAH charges $100 for transfers of title. JTCAH will provide the document and have it recorded for you.
Affordable Housing
Physical Address
320 S King Street
Jackson, WY 83001
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 714
Jackson, WY 83001
Phone: 307-732-0867Fax: 307-734-3864


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CORESTA Meeting, Agronomy/Phytopathology, Bucharest, 2003, P 08
Main features of the recent spreading of broomrape in French tobacco crop and efficiency of control methods
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Laboratoire de Parasitologie Végétale, Paris, France
In France, the obligate root parasite Orobanche ramosa L. (broomrape) attacks tobacco and causes important yield losses in some areas. It is becoming a real agronomic threat. A national survey has been conducted by ANITTA (National Tobacco Technical...


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The Western Loudoun Station is located at 47 W. Loudoun St, Round Hill, VA 20141.
The station includes a station commander, an assistant station commander, a criminal information records specialist, an administrative assistant, a and customer services assistant.
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office holds quarterly public safety meetings at each station. The quarterly meetings are part of the agency's effort to better utilize resources, while at the same time providing a higher level of service to county residents.
The station offers a community room available for public use to non-profit organizations. To reserve the room, please call 571-258-3750.
Services provided at the facility include fingerprinting and record checks.
Fingerprinting and record checks are provided Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. All services are provided on a first-come, first-serve basis. Be prepared to show proof of identification for all services provided. Only government-issued identification will be accepted.
For additional information please contact the Western Loudoun Station.